


Running

by Darkfromday



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Serena is ready to kick everyone's ass, as soon as this stupid nerve gas wears off, hey Reiji do you take constructive criticism? Yuuya has some
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 10:51:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16871590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkfromday/pseuds/Darkfromday
Summary: After an explosive reunion underground, Yuuya and Serena are forced to run for their lives, dodging Academia soldiers, overzealous City executives and their own self-doubt to try and regroup with the other Lancers.But the more they come to rely on one another, the harder it may be to do anything different.





	1. Rooftops

**Author's Note:**

> for [the-sayuri-rin on tumblr.](http://the-sayuri-rin.tumblr.com)
> 
> *thinking man meme* if it's on AO3 there's more eyes to shame you for not updating it more frequently

When he was little, he used to marvel at his dad’s acrobatics—the way he effortlessly flipped into the air, leapt across Solid Vision buildings, avoided darts and monster attacks without losing his signature big grin. The amount of trust he put in his monsters and in physics baffled his opponents, and engendered awe in his son’s heart.

Now though, as he gauged the distance between buildings seconds before leaping across them, swinging through them and ducking inside them, Sakaki Yuuya felt more than a little envy coupled with exhaustion, and a little bitterness. It was one thing to put on a gravity-defying show for a crowd, and another entirely to be  _running for your life_  from a crowd of crazies, with little time beforehand to practice and plan your leaps and rolls and dodges.

 _Even so,_  he thought,  _if we get through this I’d do it again_. He glanced down at the passed-out passenger in his arms, a blur of blue strands and red jacket and frowny face.  _There’s nothing else I can do if I want Serena to be safe from them… the Obelisk Force_.

Sheepishly though, he admitted as he dodged attacks from Antique Gears summoned on surrounding rooftops, he’d probably have tried losing all these guys underground first like Tsukikage had suggested before they split up.

Problem was, Yuuya wasn’t always great at thinking on his feet unless his entertainment dueling was in full swing, and lately he hadn’t gotten a whole lot of chances to duel  _his_  way—for smiles.

 _No time to think about that now_.

It was hard to duel, run and leap around the City, especially while holding the soldiers’ primary target, but duel, run, leap and carry he did—with a last shout and arm-fling, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon destroyed the latest wave of hound dogs and bought him some time to clutch Serena tighter to his chest, slide down a corroding electricity pole ( _ugh_ ) and flip open a manhole cover, climbing down it and plunging himself and her into near darkness. There was murky green water up to his ankles now, but he didn’t care. As long as no more Obelisk Force had seen his daring escape, he might have a moment to breathe before the hunt resumed again.

He had another chance now to try and wake Serena, see if the tranquilizer or gas or whatever had finally worn off and brought her back to him and the world. It was hours that she’d been out of commission now, and Yuuya was worried. As one of the Lancers’ best fighters and the only person who personally knew Academia’s tactics and tricks, having her down was the worst thing Jean Michel-Roger could have done to hurt their morale and cripple them just in time for Academia’s full-scale invasion of the Synchro Dimension.

Beyond that though… she was Yuuya’s friend, a title hard-earned (from her end), and seeing her brought low hurt him more than he’d expected it would, considering how they first met.

“Serena,” he said now, shaking her gently, trying not to put her down since he had no earthly idea what was in this sewer water with them. “Serena, can you hear me? You’ve gotta wake up.”

Her head lolled, the frown remained; she didn’t even stir or groan as she had earlier. Even more worry would have spiked in Yuuya’s belly if he’d been capable of it.

Whatever they’d done to her had taken its toll right after he arrived to save her and Reira from the consistent onslaught of soldiers he’d seen approaching them. His motorcycle had scattered a few and bought him time to try and shake Reira out of his breakdown, and then just as things had started getting  _really_  dicey Tsukikage had shown up. Seeing another Lancer outside the underground had been such a mixed shock and relief that Yuuya had been temporarily frozen, which inevitably prevented them all from escaping together.

Or so Tsukikage claimed. The ninja, speaking quickly and concisely as usual, had informed him that Akaba Reiji was holding strong with the Councilors and wanted Reira out of the fight, at least for now. (Since Yuuya still had  _serious problems_  with how liberal Reiji was in using his brother as a soldier for an interdimensional, joyless war, he didn’t raise any questions.) Yuuya, then, was tasked with getting Serena out of reach of Academia and Roger until the other Lancers could take care of the threat and regroup somewhere.

Yuuya snorted bitterly at the memory.

 _Regroup. Somewhere_.

The same Lancers who hardly knew anything more about one another than they had when they’d first gotten to this place, and who were currently split up by the City’s machinations and some of Reiji’s own.

Even Tsukikage couldn’t explain why they weren’t all fighting together, or how to wake Serena back up, or where to go to get away from all these Academia grunts… only that they had to split up and run until things could get better. Run, like they’d been doing in some form or fashion ever since they’d gotten here…

He punched the wall with his free hand, feeling a searing pain travel through his knuckles.

 _I’m sick of running. Otou-san left and all I did was run from my feelings, run from everyone who laughed at me. For a while even my Entertainment Dueling was nothing but another way to run and hide. But I can’t run from Academia, they’re everywhere! And they won’t stop until the Professor gets Serena and… and Yuzu_.

The name hurt; he had no idea where Yuzu was, even though he knew thanks to Sora that she was okay. Or had been. Running on the rooftops just now had him wondering if she was running too, thinking of him—or if she’d already been caught and sent to the Fusion Dimension.

_Don’t think about that._

Yuuya wanted nothing more than to protect them both, take them somewhere and fight off anyone who came near them—but Yuzu was MIA, and Serena was his charge right now. For the sake of Standard, for  _all_  their worlds, he had to shield her from her fellow Fusion-users. Like some kind of knight.

 _That_  thought actually made him smile, if only because he could imagine how Serena would’ve looked if he’d called himself her knight, insinuated that she was his princess. Her azure eyebrows would’ve bunched, her sea-colored eyes would’ve flared, and she would’ve been quick with a cutting remark about the state of his dueling or his lack of ability to do anything other than wax lyrical about smiles in dueling. But his smile faded when he looked down at her motionless form, and tried to adjust her so she’d be more comfortable in his arms.

“Serena, can you hear me? You’ve gotta wake up and help me fight Obelisk Force. You’re a Lancer, and you swore to help me and Yuzu and everyone keep Academia from hurting anyone else… I need you to come back. Come back and help me duel.”

But the Fusion girl’s breathing still didn’t change, and Yuuya knew that for now, he was on his own.


	2. Regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nerve gas? Unfortunately, Serena knows her.

Serena was swimming and getting nowhere; she couldn’t move her body, lift her head, focus her eyes. Everything around her was dark and formless—she knew she was meant to be doing  _something_ , and couldn’t make herself move to do or be that thing.

It was that damned nerve gas, she knew. Even unconscious, her mind was sharp, always whirring, a result of the trainings she’d so often snuck into or eavesdropped on back in Academia.  The dreamlike state she was in now was all that was saving her from deeper oblivion, which she could not afford.

Yuuya had just arrived when she passed out, yelling at Reira from his D-Wheel, but Serena couldn’t remember anything he’d been saying because the fight to stay conscious had become impossible seconds after his wheels screeched to a halt. She didn’t know where she was now—only that she  _could not_  be in the hands of Obelisk Force. She wouldn’t  _allow_  it. Wherever she was, Reira and Yuuya had to be there too, all of them safe from her former comrades.

Still…

 _I hate this_.  _I hate being weak, I hate not being useful… I couldn’t duel my way out of an empty room right now_.

She had always relied on herself, her own wits, her own self-regulation and resilience. Having spent so much time isolated from others meant that she knew how to get things done on her own.

Adjusting to the Lancers’ way of doing things had been… hard. Not so  _very_  hard since they were seldom together or working on the same page, but it was still better than anything the Professor had offered her before. But the one thing Serena had carried over with her allegiance was the ability to pull her own weight, and the fact that that just  _was not happening_ right now was painful.

She wanted to rage against the Security soldiers who had done this to her, or against Roger, or against the Professor or Obelisk Force, and was unable to do any of those things. Instead it was as if she were drowning, barely able to keep her head above water, much less wake up. Everything around her was so murky and wet.

Still, Serena kept struggling. Every so often she glimpsed light, a swinging pinprick of it beckoning her toward consciousness and autonomy over her body and her life. If she could just wake up and grasp it, everything would be all right.

The light got stronger the more she struggled, and over time she started hearing sounds—or one sound at least, something that sounded like her name, over and over again.

_Serena… Serena, you gotta wake up._

She couldn’t.  _I can’t, I’m trying, really, I am._

Serena was wading through age-old syrup, fighting to be free and awake and respond to the person entreating her to join them in the open air. Her whole cache of demons dogged her, taking on the faces of the Professor and the smug Obelisk Force soldiers who’d snarked about the princess in the tower outside her prison-room, that blue-haired Fusion child soldier chasing her and Kurosaki, Yuzu flying into a building—and that poor kid she’d carded back in Standard, forever and ever ago.

The voice at the edges of her consciousness didn’t give up, though. Instead it seemed to, over time, clear some of the fog out of her brain, giving her clearer sight of the pinprick of light hovering so far above. Perhaps it was the desperation in the tone; desperation was an emotion that Serena understood very, very well.

_Wake up… help me fight Obelisk Force…. Lancer… help me and Yuzu…_

She strained harder against the darkness. There was nothing— _nothing_ —she wanted more than to prove her worth through duels, and to repay her debt to Yuzu for basically being captured in her place. Putting that desire into action right now was so much easier said than done…

Cloying darkness sent her back down, so effortlessly it was as though she hadn’t struggled toward any light at all. Despair came hand-in-hand with the dark; her demons chortled as she lost hope, ready to torture her all the more.

She thought,  _how could I sink so low?_

She wondered,  _who am I really, that I think I_ deserve _to wake up, and go on without facing all the things I’ve done? The people I hurt?_

 _The people I hurt_ …

The boy she’d carded flashed across her mind again, more strongly this time. Violet hair, blue eyes. He’d been so arrogant during his turn—then she’d overwhelmed him. At the time Serena had been proud of herself, proud of her  _skill_  in so easily defeating the enemy, even after years of being locked away.

Barrett had been proud, too.

The darkness tightened around her, and she winced.  _Barrett. The Professor. Academia_. So many people and figures Serena had sought to please, to make notice her. And for what—so she could go out into other dimensions and hurt people? Separate families, make people cry just to unite the worlds under Fusion’s banner?

Getting Hiiragi Yuzu back wouldn’t alleviate her guilt. Fighting Obelisk Force now wouldn’t erase her desire before to be part of them, to spread the same fear and destruction they did.

 _Being a Lancer_ , Serena thought weakly,  _is not going to change who I was. Getting the opportunity to fight back against my own people doesn’t…_ hasn’t _made me different. I’m a wolf among the sheep like Dennis._

 _What can I fight for, really?_ Who _can I fight for?_

In the midst of her self-loathing and misdirection, under the choking fog of the gas, the pinprick of traveling light illuminated her again—she was able to once more make out words.

 _…Come back and help me duel_.

This time, she knew she was in no danger, because she recognized—she  _recognized!_ —the voice.

Sakaki Yuuya.

Identifying him brought everything else roaring into Serena’s drugged half-consciousness.

The tournament—Riding Duels—Jack Atlas standing tall above the rest. And their time in prison, meeting Tokumatsu Chojiro and reuniting with the other Lancers, before being subject to the schemes of the Council and Jean-Michel Roger, before Academia decided to take a more personal approach to conquering Synchro Dimension.

Serena knew bone-deep that if anyone could understand having their world-view rocked before being subject to endless suffering, Yuuya would be the one who understood.

Dueling was his life, entertaining his soul. He was way too silly at times, and hadn’t seemed to cotton on at first to the fact that they were waging an all-out war, but Synchro had changed him—hardened him. It had broken a lot of things in him. And still he fought on, and tried to reach her down deep in the darkness.

 _Sometimes_ , Serena thought,  _when you can’t do anything else, when you can’t_ feel  _anything else, there’s nothing left to do but duel._

If Yuuya could muster enough strength to ask for her help in doing what they both did best, she could damn well get out of this murky fog that Roger was trying to keep her in. She would  _not_  go passively back to Academia!

With that resolve, the next time the swinging arc of light passed over her head, Serena forced one arm free of the gas’s influence and grabbed on.


End file.
